1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of networking computer systems and more particularly to the field of systems for providing control over distribution, redistribution, access security, filtering, organizing and display of information across disparate networks.
2. Background
In most industries and professions today there is a rapidly increasing need for intercompany as well as intracompany communications. Most companies, firms, and institutions want to allow their employees to communicate internally, with other employees, and externally with the firm's customers, vendors, information sources, and others throughout a work day. Depending on the nature of the information and the relationship between the parties, these communications may need to take the form of one-to-one communiques in some cases, one-to-many broadcasts in others, many to many communications, and even many-to-one communications. Some of these categories might also provide better information for all concerned if the flow of data is interactive and collaborative, allowing recipients to comment, share, and build upon what has already been received.
Most large private networks are built of complex sets of:
Local Area Networks (LAN)--a set of computers located within a fairly small physical area, usually less than 2 miles, and linked to each other by high speed cables or other connections; and PA1 Wide Area Networks (WAN)--groups of Local Area Networks that are linked to each other over high speed long distance communications lines or satellites that convey data quickly over long distances, forming the "backbone" of the internal network. PA1 co-pending application Ser. No. 08/822,902, filed Mar. 24, 1997 by Butman et al., entitled Universal Domain Routing And Publication Control System, and co-pending application Ser. No. 08/823,428, filed Mar. 24, 1997, by Butman et al., entitled Domain Communications Server Apparatus And Method, and co-pending application Ser. No. 08/822,898, filed Mar. 24, 1997 by Butman et al., entitled Client Side Communications Server Apparatus And Method, and co-pending application Ser. No. 08/828,833, filed Mar. 24, 1997, by Butman et al., entitled Dynamic Client Registry Apparatus And Method, and co-pending application Ser. No. 08/828,142, filed Mar. 24, 1997, by Butman et al., entitled Dynamic Group Registry Apparatus And Method.)
These private internal networks use complex hardware and software to transmit, route, and receive messages internally.
Sharing and distributing information inside a corporate network has been made somewhat easier by using client/server technology, web browsers, and hypertext technology used in the Internet, on an internal basis, as the first steps towards creating "intranets." In typical client/server technology, one computer acts as the "back end" or server to perform complex tasks for the users, while other, smaller computers or terminals are the "front-end " or "clients" that communicate with the user. In a client/server approach the client requests data from the server. A web server is a program that acts as a server function for hypertext information. In large private networks, a server computer might have web server software operating on it to handle hypertext communications within the company's internal network. At the web server site, one or more people would create documents in hypertext format and make them available at the server. In many companies, employees would have personal computers at their desks connected to the internal network. In an "intranet" these employees would use a web browser on their personal computers to see what hypertext documents are available at the web server. While this has been an advance for internal communications over a private network, it requires personnel familiar with HyperText Markup Language (HTML) the language that is used to create hypertext links in documents to create and maintain the "internal" web pages. If a more interactive approach is desired, an Information Technology (IT) specialist in some form of scripting, such as CGI, PERL, is needed who can create forms documents and procedures to allow users to ask for information from the server.
It is now increasingly common for intranets to connect to the Internet forming what is sometimes called an "extranet." The Internet, however, is essentially a passive transmission system. There is no automatic notification sent to clients or customers that a new report is available on a given Internet Web page that is external to the client's intranet. Customers or clients normally would have to search the Internet periodically to see if a Web page has changed, and if the change is something he or she is interested in seeing. Some Web page sites that provide fee services use e-mail to notify prospective users that the new data is available. As mentioned, e-mail is slow, so if the data is also time-sensitive, the notification may not reach the customer until later in the day, when it may be of much less value.
As FIG. 2a illustrates, connecting consumers of information over the Internet to external information sources via DMZ's and secure sockets is complex and cumbersome, as well as costly to set up and administer for the publishers of information. From the viewpoint of the consumers of information over the Internet it should be noted that transmissions over such a distribution model occur at "Internet speed." That is to say, once a request for information leaves customer C8, for example, if it goes over the Internet it is in TCP-IP formatted packets, and possibly encrypted via secure socket technology. In any case, its speed is the average speed of the Internet transmission links, once it leaves customer C8's backbone network. This is usually much slower than the speed of transmission within the customer's own internal network. Thus, performance speed of the intercompany communications can be problematic as well, when seen from the consumer's viewpoint.
While the use of Demilitarized Zones (DMZ's) (as described in the background of the above referenced co-pending application serial numbers:
or devices such as proxy servers help ameliorate the security problems, DMZ's also tend to create content backlogs that form bottlenecks for all intercompany communications. For example, if the only persons authorized to transfer data outside the company's firewall to its DMZ are the information technology specialists, this can become a labor intensive chore or a bottleneck or both for a company that needs or wants to send a high volume of information outside selectively. Similarly, present security technology provides various encryption options (thus creating problems for standardization amongst companies) but leaves such matters as identification up to the information technology (IT) department at each company to manage. The IT specialists must assign user identifiers and passwords to every external individual authorized to access information (authentication) in the company's DMZ. Presently this is usually done by manual letters of reference and manual data entry of each business and individual.
If, as mentioned, documents must be created using HTML, or special CGI (common gateway interface) scripts also need to be created and maintained to put data into the proper formats, all of this tends to place matters of policy and content management in the hands of IT department specialists, rather than in the hands of authors and viewers of information. IT specialists within companies are being overwhelmed by requests to add new users and individuals, administer the types of data that can be transmitted and create maintain changes and updates to the scripts, programs, networks and systems as a whole.
It is an object of this invention to provide a system and method for multiple levels of dynamic domain routing.